


past midnight

by skuls



Series: Half-Light Universe [7]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Angst, senseless angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-30 20:32:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6439450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skuls/pseuds/skuls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There she is, the spirit, the fraction of a sister that never existed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	past midnight

**Author's Note:**

> a.) i hate myself i'm sorry  
> b.) i don't understand what this is  
> c.) i thought to myself 'ooh you should write a post half-light william fic'. this was not the intended result.   
> d.) i did try and reference scully's second pregnancy in returns, so this is like a confirmation. mulder and scully have a second kid. beyond that, idk.

William sneaks down the hall at night, gripping a flashlight in his hand. He wonders if it’ll be harder to sneak around after the baby comes. His knowledge about babies is virtually zero, but if they’re anything like Pip was when he was a younger dog, the slightest sound will set them off.

He clambers onto a chair at the kitchen table, crouching. The room is silent. He left the dog asleep upstairs. He is alone. He breathes in.

There is a thin veil between the two worlds. He can reach past it. There is no version of his parents there, any version of them is dead, but he can see glimpses of them, their lives there. “Hell,” William mutters. 

“That’s a bad word.” 

There she is, the spirit, the fraction of a sister that never existed. She is the reflection of a spirit, and he is the only one who can see her. 

He’d first found her when sneaking downstairs to get cookies. (The idea of midnight snacks had been romanticized to the point where he’d actually set his alarm to midnight to have the experience.) And he’d seen it, the thin veil. He’d wondered at first if it’d been a part of him, another inexplicable intracity of his being. But then he’d seen the little girl wearing the nightgown with her feet planted on their tile floor, staring up at him. 

“I’m older than you,” he informs her. “I can say a bad word.”

“I woulda been older.” She kicks his kitchen chair.

_ Don’t talk about that.  _ “Anyway, I was talking about your world. ‘Cause that’s what it is. Hell.”

Emily looks up at him with wide eyes. “I don’t like it there. I wanna be in this world.”

“I know you do.” He takes her small hand and climbs down from the chair.

“I like this house. I like your family.”

“It’s a good family.”

“I had another family there.”

“I know. So did I.”

“I get to see them sometimes,” she explains to him. “But not a lot.”

“Do you wanna see Mom?” he asks her. She nods. She looks scared.

He leads her to his parents’ bedroom, pushes the door open quietly. They are asleep. They don’t wake up. Emily watches from the doorway. “She looks different.”

“She’s the same,” William says. “It’s just been a long time.”

“Is she gonna have a baby?”

“Yes, she is.”

Emily tugs at his hand, so he closes the door. “I want to stay here.”

_ You should be here. Why are you the only one who doesn’t get a happy ending? _

He scoops up the small spirit of his sister and carries her back down to the kitchen. “I wish you could talk to Mom,” he says.

“No, you don’t,” she says. “I’d make her sad.”

She would. William sets her on the ground and smooths her wayward hair. “Can I come back again?” she asks him.

“Of course.” He grabs her small hand. She should be here with them. He wonders what would happen if she stayed until the daylight. Maybe if it touched her, she would become a part of this world, the better world. Or maybe she would just vanish, crumble like a sandcastle in the waves. 

“William, let me go,” she says. “You gotta.” Her small fingers slip through his. 

The veil shimmers in front of him. He breathes out.

“Emily,” he says to the darkened room. 


End file.
